Meet our new team members!

October 2018 – Plan Hillsborough is excited to welcome four new team members who will be working to support the Planning Commission, Hillsborough MPO, and the Hillsborough River Interlocal Planning Board.

Allow us to introduce you to:

Mary Kelley Hoppe | Planning Outreach Manager

Vishaka Shiva Raman | Community Planner

Kierra Zuokemefa | Community Planner

Diego Guerra | Planning and Mapping Technician

Mary Kelley Hoppe, Planning Outreach Manager, is responsible for enhancing community engagement and communications. She has an extensive background in local government and non-profit public outreach, most recently serving as a legislative aide to former County Commission Chairman Mark Sharpe and with USF’s Center for Transportation Research and Tampa Bay National Estuary Program. Mary received her BS in history from Bradley University and is a graduate of the summer institute on international affairs at Georgetown University. She is passionate about urban design and broadening community involvement.

Vishaka Shiva Raman joins the Hillsborough MPO as a Community Planner. She previously worked as a Complete Streets Transportation Planner with FDOT District 1, focusing on multimodal corridor planning and network analysis. She is a graduate of USF’s Master of Urban and Regional Planning program and holds a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering with a focus on transportation. She was a USF Fellow with the MPO from 2015 to 2016. Vishaka believes community involvement and understanding community needs is vital to solving the region’s transportation challenges. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her family.

Kierra Zuokemefa is a Community Planner on our Comprehensive Plan Policy Review Team. She recently received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from FSU, specializing in Neighborhood Planning and Community Design. Kierra will be assisting in the administration of Comprehensive Plan Amendments from initial submittal through final adoption, facilitating amendment noticing requirements for jurisdictions. As a graduate student, she was selected as a Planning Research Fellow for the Leon County Property Appraiser’s Office, and later served as a Planning Legislative Intern for AARP, assisting with Livable Communities and aging issues.

Diego Guerra is a Planning and Mapping Technician with our Comprehensive Plan Policy Review Team, assisting with amendment intake through final approval. He is a recent graduate of USF’s Global Sustainability Graduate program, specializing in Coastal Sustainability, and is currently enrolled in USF’s Master of Urban and Regional Planning Graduate Program. Diego is interested in making communities more resilient to natural hazards and promoting coastal sustainability.

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